Free mobile apps found to be battery hogs

A new report produced by boffins at the Purdue University claims that free mobile apps which rely on third party advertising are battery hogs.

Researchers tested battery drain on Windows and Android handsets and found that advertising on some free apps accounted for as much as 75 percent of their total battery consumption. In Angry Birds only 20 percent of total battery consumption was used to play the game, while the rest was gobbled up by annoying ads. A whopping 45 percent was used up to find out the user’s location, needed for targeted advertising.

Third-party advertising and analytics services are a necessity, as an increasing number of app developers are turning to free apps with various marketing models. However, researchers caution that developers should weight their options before choosing third-party services.